EX-Ante Carbon Balance Tool (EX-ACT) Virtual Training

As a key executing partner of the Regional Hub, FAO plays a key role in providing technical assistance to countries to monitor and evaluate interventions on food security and resilience on target populations. 

During the RFS M&E workshop in Nairobi in November 2019, several RFS countries expressed interest in being trained in FAO tools to meet their reporting and M&E needs. The EX-ACT tool was one of the tools countries were particularly interested in given its relevance in assessing impacts related to resilience, food security and carbon balance. EX-ACT is an appraisal system developed by FAO that provides estimates of the impact of agriculture and forestry development projects, programmes and policies on the carbon-balance. 

Given the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic posed to in-country training, the FAO EX-ACT team organized a 2-day virtual training workshop on the 3rd and 4th of June 2020 for eSwatini, Malawi and Kenya country project teams.

The objective of the training was to strengthen country project team skills in calculating carbon emissions at the national or regional level. The calculation and monitoring of carbon emissions across the lifespan of the projects will allow country project teams to track the impact of project activities, such as improved land use management, afforestation, and improved agricultural practices, on carbon emissions and will help them to report on Global Environment Benefits (GEBs) related to climate change mitigation. 

The specific objectives of the training were to: 

• Identify the climate mitigation impact of project activities and interventions. 
• Strengthen the capacities of national stakeholders in estimating and monitoring emissions reductions goals and aligned to the child projects’ and Hub’s M&E systems. 
• Provide accurate and transparent estimates of GHGs emissions reductions using project-specific data. 
• Pilot a fully delivered online training by combining an e-learning course with a Zoom-based coaching component. 

The training provided a combination of an e-learning course developed by FAO and a virtual coaching component facilitated by the EX-ACT team. Small training session sizes allowed EX-ACT trainers to provide tailored support to eSwatini, Malawi, and Kenya as these country project teams work to incorporate the EX-ACT tool within their M&E practices.